Biophotonics
Biophotonics concerns the application of photonics to the life sciences, often exploiting the chemical specificity that is provided via the interaction of ultraviolet, visible and NIR radiation with electronic and vibrational transitions of molecules associated with biological tissues, as well as with exogenous probes and contrast agents. In the Photonics Group, a significant fraction of our research portfolio is devoted to the development and application of photonics technology for the study of disease and the development of diagnostic tools and therapies. These biophotonics projects utilise a range of optical readouts across the scales from cuvette-based solution studies of molecular biology and super-resolved microscopy through high content analysis (HCA) and preclinical imaging to ex vivo clinical studies of tissue and in vivo studies in patients. This multidisciplinary work is undertaken in collaboration with partners from the Faculties of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and with external hospitals and biomedical research institutes.